Corruption
by Jack Storm 448
Summary: In Terran Standard Year 1314, Post-Incident, there was a war. A war between us, the humans, and beings from another dimension; colloquially known as 'Phantoms', due to their ethereal bodies and ghostly appearance. The Great Phantom War was the the single greatest calamity of the age, only matched by 'The Incident' itself; and now, the Second Great Phantom War is about to begin.
1. Chapter 1

"Commander," said unit B-114 as he walked into the General's office, carrying a sheaf of papers. " We need to talk."

General Wycliff looked up from the mountain of paperwork on his desk with no small amount of shock, and a little indignation; the general, with his short, jet-black hair greying around the fringes, and piercing blue eyes that seemed to look into your soul, was unaccustomed to mere footsoldiers speaking to him in such a manner.

He was by no means an unreasonable man, but he did expect his subordinates to treat him with a certain amount of respect; and unit B-114, one of the newest recruits to the Wellen Planetary Militia, was talking as though he were of equal, or even greater, rank than the general.

On the other hand, B-114 may have been young but he was by no means unskilled; in fact, he'd graduated the Wellen Military Academy top of his class, and was considered to be the most capable new recruit they Academy had turned out in decades. A sandy-haired lad of only nineteen Standard Terran Years, and with eyes just blue and piercing as the general himself's, Wycliff had taken quite a liking to B-114 and the the boy had never let him down yet; as such, the old war hero decided to at least hear the boy out. But not without heckling him a bit first.

"You know," Wycliff said dryly, "There are these things called appointments; you should really try them some time."

B-114 shook his head, and said in an apologetic tone, "I'm sorry sir, but there was no time; this is quite urgent."

The general leaned forward in his seat; B-114 was obviously quite concerned about something. He was fidgeting restlessly, and eyes were darting nervously around the room as though he were being hounded by Phantoms.

"Go on," Wycliff said.

"Sir," B-114 began, "For a while now I've been concerned about rising Corruption levels in the Valerie system; and the apparent lack of action being taken by our Systemwide Government."

B-114 laid the sheaf of papers he'd been carrying on the general's desk.

"I did some tests," B-114 continued, "And by my calculations we've already reached Code Red levels of Corruption; and the Corruption will reach Code Black levels systemwide in no more than three weeks. You of all people know what happens if we hit Code Black. And yet nothing has been done about it; no evac, no call for the Priests, they haven't even sounded an alert!"

By the end of his speech, B-114 was almost shouting in barely restrained fear; and rightly so, if his data was reliable. Code Red was bad enough, but Code Black… The boy was right about one thing; any system reaching Code Black was a nightmare scenario.

"That's quite troubling news," the general said calmly, "But I just got the official Corruption Level reports for the system today, and we're nowhere near dangerous levels. I'm afraid you must have miscalculated."

B-114 shook his head. "I can't tell you how much I wish you were right, but I didn't make any miscalculations; I ran the tests ten times, and came up with exactly the same result every time."

Wycliff swallowed; as young as B-114 was, and as unlikely it was that he was right and the official reports were wrong, the general was inclined to believe the young soldier. There was no deceit whatsoever in the boy's eyes, and no doubt either.

"Are you saying," Wycliff continued, doing his best to keep his voice even, "That you believe the official reports are incorrect?"

B-114 looked his superior in the eye. "I'm saying I think they're deliberate lies; a coverup."

The general was stunned by the boy's words, but his surprise soon turned to indignation.

"Now, look here…"

'Where did you get those reports?" B-114 interrupted. "Polaris Prime in Gamma, right? Probably from Central Command."

The general paused for a moment; the boy was right, the test results did come from Central Command. The High Council had established official, regulation Corruption tests about five STY's ago; and had, apparently, assembled a team of specialists to conduct them.

"Are you implying…" the general didn't finish that thought.

"The Valerie system isn't the only thing that's corrupt," B-114 said gravely. "Unfortunately, I don't have enough irrefutable evidence to make that claim public without getting silenced. Please General Wycliff, Sir; you have to believe me."

Wycliff stood slowly, and turned around to look at the wall behind his desk. It was covered with medals; from the Great Phantom War. Medals of honour, medals of courage, medals of loyalty, he'd won them all; he'd served under the High Imperial Council for decades and, while he may have questioned their wisdom at some points, he simply couldn't believe that they were deliberately letting Corruption run rampant.

"I'm sorry," he said without turning around, "I really am, but your wild stories about the Council turning a blind eye to Corruption cannot be true; what you have said is akin to treason, and is punishable by life imprisonment at the very least. You do know that, don't you."

B-114 said nothing.

Wycliff sighed, and stared at the wall some more; as if hoping that he could conjure up the right answer from the cold, hard pieces of metal suspended there.

"You are dismissed from active duty, B-114," Wycliff said eventually, with as much surety as he could muster. "You are no longer a soldier of the Wellen Militia, and I am no longer your commanding officer; now get out of my office, before I change my mind."

B-114 sighed. "You know, General, all my life I've respected you; more than any other man in the Empire. But I can't let your misplaced loyalty to the Imperial Council destroy an entire system."

Wycliff turned around in surprise, and saw before him a completely different person; he was physically the same, but there was no fear in his eyes or voice now. He looked at the general with calm determination, and spoke with ironclad resolve; the general couldn't help but see a younger version of himself standing in front of him. And frankly it frightened him, because he knew what B-114 was about to do; exactly what he himself would have done.

"I can't stand up to the Imperial Council directly," B-114 said, "But I can at least save my homeworld!"

Without any further warning, B-114 ran out of the room; and Wycliff knew exactly where he was going. The control room; the heart of the entire base. Without any idea what else he was supposed to do, Wycliff ran after him; even as a man of 65 STY's, Wycliff was in peak physical condition and managed to stay only one corridor behind B-114, but he couldn't catch him in time.

B-114 burst into the command centre, to the astonishment of everyone there; and he shouted the three words every person in the Empire dreaded most.

"CORRUPTION CODE RED! I repeat, CORRUPTION CODE RED!"

The next ten seconds were utterly silent; no one wanted to believe their ears, but no one wanted to risk not believing it. Eventually, years of Corruption Drills kicked in and the Control Center became a hive of activity as alarms were sounded and alerts sent out across the planet.

A warning message was sent to the only two Jump Gates out of the system; they would be closed in one Standard Terran Hour, to avoid trapping any ships in hyperspace. After that, the only people who would be allowed through would be Priests; Corruption Specialists from House Sirius, and the only ones with the technology and training to eliminate Corruption. Their services were extremely expensive, and so were only called in for emergencies; and anything above Code Orange classified as such an emergency.

B-114 didn't wait around to make sure everything went smoothly, he knew it would; these people had been drilled to respond to a Code Red so much that they probably had dreams about doing it. Nightmares, most likely. And besides, B-114 couldn't afford to be questioned; certain… 'things' might come to light that should really stay secrets. So, he ran back down the hallway from whence he came, and ran right into General Wycliff.

"What in the name of the Creator have you done?!" Wycliff exclaimed; although he already knew the answer.

"Saved this system," B-114 said. "And possibly delayed the second Great Phantom War."

"This won't end well," Wycliff insisted. "The Priests will arrive and say the system's clean already, the Code Red will get called off, and you'll be tried for treason!"

"Except you know that won't happen," B-114 said, with no room for argument in his voice. "I can see it in your eyes; you believe me. You can't stop the Priests once they've been summoned, and they'll be here in less than ten STH's; they'll have their work cut out for them lowering the Corruption back to safe levels. But by the time they get here, I'll be long gone. Now you can either accept that, or you can try to stop me; so what's it going to be?"

Wycliff hesitated for a second. "You'll never get out of the system; the Jump gates will be closed in an hour, and you can't get a ship that quickly."

B-114 smiled. "Let me worry about that," he saluted formally. "Take care of yourself, Commander Wycliff."

Wycliff hesitated a second, then made up his mind and saluted back. "You too, Unit B-114."

The boy's smile grew. "My name's Steven; Steven Arc."

In the Wellen Planetary Militia, soldiers were assigned code names based on what regiment they were from, and what their rank was in that regiment; a standard practise handed down by Central Command. B-114 was the one-hundred and fourteenth member of regiment-B; had he been an officer, an extra digit would have been added to his name. Soldiers were never supposed to reveal their true names except on one condition; their exit form the force either by dismissal, death, or resignation.

"It has been an honour and a pleasure serving under you sir," Steven said; I hope our paths will cross again some day.

With that, he ran past Wycliff towards the shuttle bays; leaving the General to look at his retreating form with a strange certainty that he really would see the boy again some day, one way or another. Then, the realization hit him that B-114… no, that Steven Arc had just saved an entire system from the Corruption.

Wycliff saluted again. "Be safe, Steven Arc."


	2. Chapter 2

Me: As you've probably guessed by this point, I have decided to continue writing this story; although, as with my other side-stories, I will not be updating it nearly as often as Rising Storm. And in fact, I don't think I'll be doing much with this story at all until I finish up Ivy's Story at least; but still, the poll I put up showed an overwhelming majority vote for continuing it, so I will although this will likely be the last chapter of it I post for a while. And in celebration of this story's official debut under the title 'Corruption', I bring you two very special guests. Say hello guys.

Steven: Hi.

Jack: Hey there Stevie; welcome to the 'Author's Corner'.

Steven: Thanks; this is all still a little… weird for me. I mean, half an hour ago I didn't think any of this was actually real; it was just supposed to be a story based on an old children's game. And as for this whole thing about alternate dimensions…

Me: You mean Alternate Universes; Dimensions are something else entirely, and something that is not discussed without a whole lot of quantum-physics. And… pseudoscience.

Steven: Oh… okay then; I get the feeling I probably shouldn't ask too many questions about all of this.

Jack: Yeah, that's probably a good idea; don't worry, you'll get used to it.

Me: And I'll certainly explain what I can to you; once we're off-camera. I'm just still not sure if my world, the one where I'm posting this story online, is ready for the details quite yet; even if it is under the guise of some second-rate fanfic.

Steven: *nods* Okay, that makes sense; I'm not sure my world would be ready either, and if what you said is true, my universe is at least a few thousand Terran Years ahead of yours.

Me: It's mostly just me being over-cautious.

Jack: If you were being 'over'-cautious, you wouldn't even be recording all this.

Me: True that. Anyway folks, enjoy the second chapter of Corruption.

Steven: And don't forget to leave a review; and subscribe if you like it. *whispers to me* 'Was that alright?'

Me: Oh yeah; that was great.

Jack: You'll be a fully-fledged Fourth Waller in no time.

* * *

Steven raced down the corridors until he came to docking station C-17; it was a privately rented docking port, but he had the passcode and was granted access. Once inside the port, he quickly found what he was looking for; a Schroedinger class deep-space shuttle, named the Swift.

The Schroedinger was a small ship, not much bigger than a small residential building; it weighed only a little more than twenty metric tons, and was built to be crewed by only two people. Intended mainly for scouting, it's small size and sleek profile made it difficult to detect on most deep-space scanning arrays; and it came standard with some of the most cutting edge scanning instruments in the galaxy.

Plus, Steven knew that this particular Schroedinger was no ordinary ship; it didn't look like anything special on the outside, but on the inside he knew there was almost nothing left of the original ship. It this ship was something else entirely; a machine of unparalleled complexity and sophistication, containing some of the most advanced technology in the known universe, hidden underneath a Schroedinger shell.

This ship could take more hits than most capital-class cruisers, disappear into deep-space without so much as a heat trail from its engines to follow, outfly any ship known to mankind, and take down most targets in mere seconds; and it was his ride out of the system, and into what would be his new life.

As Steven walked towards the ship, the cockpit opened and a man leaned out of it.

The man waved at him. "Hey there Arc, good to see you again. I take it this means you've decided to accept our offer?"

Steven nodded. "Yeah; I'm in."

The man grinned. "And I suppose those sirens I hear have nothing to do with it?"

Steven shrugged. "Maybe; but either way Mr. Moses, we'd better get going as soon as possible or we'll miss the jump-gate."

Mr. Moses, as he'd introduced himself to Steven a while back, was a well-built man in his mid-twenties; he had short, jet-black hair, and dark brown eyes that perpetually twinkled with an almost boyish sense of humour and fun.

"Oh, enough with the 'Mr. Moses' stuff," he said, "You're making me feel old; since you've decided to join us, you can call me Frank."

Frank Moses held out a hand to Steven and helped pull him up into the cockpit of the ship.

"Welcome aboard, Steven Arc," Frank said with a grin.

"Glad to be here," Steven replied.

"Alright then," Frank said, closing the cockpit and opening the bay doors. "Please take your seat, and prepare for takeoff. Let's blow this popsicle stand."

Steven, having been trained at the best military institution on Wellen, could fly any ship currently in production; and a few that weren't. As such, he knew exactly what he had to do as co-pilot on a small ship like this. Frank sat at the front of the ship, with the main display for the deep-space scanners right in front of him; he would manage the autonav computer and handle manual navigation when it was needed, and he was also in charge of ship-to-ship/ship-to-planet communications.

Steven's seat was directly behind Frank's, and facing towards the rear of the ship; his jobs were keeping constant tabs on the ship's deep-space scanners and other instruments, keeping track of the ship's various internal systems and making sure they were all running at full capacity, and in the case of a dogfight it was his job to manage the weapons systems. Fortunately, he was more than adept at all three tasks.

"All systems stable," Steven reported. "Engines at optimal temperature; we are ready for takeoff."

"Tower-C," Frank said over the coms to the watchtower, which kept track of all ships which entered or left the spaceport. "This is the Schroedinger 'Swift' in hanger C-17; do you copy?" Over."

"This is Tower-C," a man's voice came back over the coms. "We read you loud and clear. Over."

"Requesting permission to launch," Frank said. "Over."

"Permission granted; you may launch when ready. Over."

"Alright Arc," Frank said to him. "Begin launch sequence."

Steven nodded. Most ships nowadays were equipped with contra-gravity thrusters; small but powerful repulsor engines which could generate a lot of thrust within a planet's atmosphere, but were largely useless in deep space where there was little to nothing for them to repulse. Due to the fact that they didn't require fuel to run, they were commonly used in surface-bound transport vessels; but they were also highly effective at getting deep-space craft out of orbit, without all the mess that used to accompany the launching of spacecraft back in the Terrestrial Age.

In fact, along with the hyperspace jump-gates, the contra-gravity thruster was one of the technological innovations which revolutionized deep-space travel and exploration; and that, in time, led to the colonisation of other planets. Steven had learned all about the Space-Age Revolution at the Wellen Military Academy; and he had always been amazed at how far technology had advanced in the thousands of years since then. And he was now co-piloting a perfect example.

With the deep, rumbling thrum that every space-jockey loved to hear, the Swift rose a few feet into the air and turned one-hundred and eighty degrees in place; the hanger was designed to accommodate substantially larger ships than a Schroedinger, so there was plenty of room. Once they were facing the right direction, Frank eased the ship through the bay doors and into the cool morning air.

As they picked up speed and entered the lower atmosphere of Wellen, Steven remarked to himself that it was a beautiful new day; one night on Wellen was just over ninety-two Standard Terran Hours long, so dawn was always much anticipated. It was also exceptionally beautiful since Valerie, their Sun, was a vibrant cobalt-coloured Blue Dwarf.

As they exited Wellen's Exosphere and rose into outer space, Steven stared at the graphical display in front of him; Wellen was small by planetary standards, and less than two hundred years ago it was nothing more than a run-down slum of a planet; times had gotten much better for them since then, but pollution and poverty were still rampant.

General Wycliff's efforts with the Militia had helped the planet greatly, as it had turned Wellen into a much-needed center of trade between the Empire and House Za'lek. Still, Wellen was far from prosperous; but it was his home, and Steven couldn't help but find it bitter-sweet as he looked down at it from above for the last time in the foreseeable future.

Shaking off the sudden pang of home-sickness, Steven went back to reading the deep-space scanners; making sure another ship wasn't about to run into them or something. They made good time crossing the system towards the jump-gate to the Ux system; deep space seems a lot smaller when you're travelling at over four-thousand meters per second.

"Why are we headed to Ux anyway?" Steven asked.

Frank grinned. "You've never been out of this system, have you."

Steven shook his head. "No; I've only been off-world during training exercises."

"In that case you probably didn't realize this," Frank continued, "But if we go through Ux we can be deep into Za'lek space in five jumps."

Steven furrowed his brow. "But why would we…"

"Think about it for a second," Frank interrupted him. "The governing body at the core of the Empire was purposely allowing Corruption to flourish in the Wellen system, and it's not the first time they've tried something like this. My colleagues and I are investigating them, so where can we meet up where the Empire won't about it?"

Steven nodded. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense; the Empire barely has any presence in Za'lek space."

Frank shook his head. "No, the Empire doesn't have any presence in Za'lek space; the Za'lek make sure of that. The Hargen system is the furthest Empire ships are allowed to go; House Za'lek doesn't like other people looking over their shoulders."

House Za'lek began more than two-thousand years ago as a great project instituted by the Empire; an entire planetary colony devoted to scientific research and experimentation. Over time, more and more of the Empire's intellectual elite started flocking to project Za'lek. Soon one planet wasn't enough to house the rapidly expanding project but, mindful of the extraordinary technological advances they'd made, the Empire started delegating more and more worlds on which the scientists could live and work; even going so far as to grant project Za'lek the noble title of Great House, essentially making it a semi-independent vassal state under the Empire.

Eventually, the Empire's top minds were all part of the project; leaving no one in the Empire who could actually understand the reports and theorems turned in by the Za'lek scientists. Now unable to benefit from the project, and equally unable to halt it, the Empire was left in the dust by House Za'lek; who soon established a significant, and somewhat frightening, technological lead.

This came to a head almost six-hundred years ago when, after years, maybe even decades of research, House Za'lek produced a revolutionary new prototype capital-class battleship; the technology behind it was, even to the untrained eyes of the Empire, obviously well ahead of its time. They were more powerful than any other ship the Empire had ever seen; and were capable of single-handedly destroying multiple capital-class cruisers, or whole fleets of smaller ships, in a matter of minutes.

House Za'lek only ever built five of these ships, but with those five ships they officially established their independence from the Empire once and for all; the Empire tried to retake a few Za'lek systems, but those five ships effortlessly destroyed any armed force that dared enter their space. To this day, House Za'lek remains a galactic faction independent of the Empire; although trading between the two did eventually get reinstated.

"So where exactly is your base of operations?" Steven asked.

Frank shook his head. "We don't really have one; you'll see what I mean when we get there. Until then, let's keep radio silence whenever possible."

"Alright," Steven said.

Turning back to the scanner, he saw that they were nearing the jump gate; although it really wasn't much of a gate. It was more of a weak point in the fabric of space and time, almost like fault-line; jumping into hyperspace took a lot less energy if you followed these fault-lines, although you could only travel between two corresponding points. Theoretically it was possible to jump into hyperspace from anywhere, to anywhere, but even the Za'lek had yet to find a way to do it. For one thing, without a gate it would take an absurd amount of energy to perform a successful jump; more energy than most ships, even capital-class ones, had onboard at any one time.

Jump gates were invisible to the naked eye, but all inter-system shuttles were equipped with sensors designed to detect the abnormalities they caused. As they neared the jump gate to Ux, Frank put the ship on autonav; lining up with a jump gate almost demanded computer-like precision, so most pilots simply let their autonav systems handle it.

They were hailed by the head of the small fleet of ships which were stationed there; a constant guard posted to make sure the jump gates stayed clear, and that no one entered or left the system without being recorded.

"This is the Schroedinger 'Swift' on-rout from Wellen; requesting permission to jump to Ux. Over," Frank said.

"Permission granted," the officer said. "You may jump when ready. Although be aware, we are under orders to close off access to the gate in less than half a standard hour. Over."

"Received and understood," Frank replied. "Over."

With that, Frank initiated the ship's jump sequence and, after the few seconds it took the hyperspace engines to warm up, they jumped into hyperspace.

Steven had never gone through a jump gate before, so he had only a second-hand idea of what to expect; what he didn't expect was a brief flash of light, and then for it to suddenly be over. It seemed like the jump had only taken a split second; but when he checked the onboard clock, he saw that almost a whole hour had passed.

"Yeah," Frank said. "I know, it's weird; time doesn't flow the same inside hyperspace. Almost no time has passed for us, but we've been in hyperspace for quite a while from the perspective of the physical universe."

"I was briefed on it in my training," Steven replied, "But experiencing it in person is just… weird."

"It's one of those things you get used to after a while," Frank assured him. "But anyway, back to radio silence."

Steven nodded and went back to the screens in front of him. If all went according to plan, this would be a quiet trip.

 _"Then again,"_ Steven thought wryly, _"Since when do things ever go according to plan?"_


End file.
